Governor can take a stand on police violence with his pen

By Cruz Reynoso and Harry Snyder

July 21, 2015

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

Protesters push against Oakland police as they attempt to continue marching past 3rd and Washington during a rally and march called for by the Black Youth Project to protest the "stealing of black women's lives by state sponsored violence" May 23, 2015 in Oakland, Calif.

Protesters push against Oakland police as they attempt to continue...

In his long and multifaceted career in public service, Gov. Jerry Brown has made a name for himself as someone who cares about criminal justice, whether during his days as attorney general of California, or as a tough-on-crime mayor of Oakland in the early 2000s. He also governs a state that has more people die at the hands of police — more than 100 so far in 2015 — than any other state in the country.

We know too well that there are two sides to criminal justice: The side that keeps citizens safe from unlawful activity, and the side that protects us from unfair treatment at the hands of the law. It is on the latter issue that the governor has been conspicuously silent.

In the 1990s, Brown was outspoken against the overrepresentation of black men in the criminal justice system, calling it a “staggering ... message of absolute oppression.” In the last year, however, when protests against police brutality swept the nation and repeatedly filled California’s streets with activists, the governor declined to comment publicly on the issue until January. When citizen footage exposed a pervasive level of police misconduct, Gov. Brown made it easier for law enforcement to use video to monitor citizens, vetoing a bill that would require police to obtain a warrant before using surveillance drones on the public.

Fortunately, the governor is facing a critical opportunity to take action to solve one of the most pressing civil rights issues of our time — not only with his voice, but with his pen. Three bills — AB953, AB256 and SB411 — are making their way to his desk that combat unjust and unconstitutional practices in law enforcement. These bills provide much-needed refinement of laws that no longer adequately protect the people from unfair treatment and abuse at the hands of the criminal justice system.

A recent poll shows that more than half of Californians believe that “blacks and other minorities do not receive equal treatment in the criminal justice system.” These perceptions are a reflection of the troubling reality facing people of color in our state: A 2015 report by a California police department found that while blacks and Latinos were searched by police three times and two times the rate of whites, respectively, these searches were less likely to result in arrest than searches of white Californians. Though the state currently has prohibitions against profiling, even the Legislature acknowledged in 2000 that these statutes are too vague to be effective in preventing the practice, making AB953 a long-overdue addition to the books.

Similarly, the laws protecting evidence against tampering were written before digital video was so readily available, so SB411 would update the law to uphold Californians’ rights to film police, and AB256 would ensure that any police officer who intentionally tampered with video evidence would face felony charges.

By ensuring these bills become law, Gov. Brown has an opportunity to take a stand against the persistent biases in the criminal justice system. These bills will help ensure that all Californians receive equal treatment and equal justice under the law, but they are only the start of what must become a larger movement to end police violence.

Instead of leading the nation in the number of police-related deaths, our state can be a leader in fair and accountable policing — but only if the governor takes action.

Cruz Reynoso is a UC Davis professor emeritus of law and a former associate justice of the California Supreme Court. Harry Snyder is a public interest advocate and lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Public Health.